I have a 75 with 9 Cherry Barbs 3.6 9 Gold Barbs 3.6 and 9 Odessa Barbs 4.5 where I will be stripping pairs off and trying to successfully raise each breed. Currently I am trying Cherries as I have a very large, very gravid female and a very radiant, red, young male.

They are setup in a 10g filled with only 4g of water. The water comes from the 75 after an unnecessary water change. It is bare bottom except for a pile of large rocks completely covered in large Thread Algae. Finally useful for something I guess

They are sitting in darkness right now, preparing for an eventful morning. I'll update on their progress breeding and the raising of the fry throughout this process._________________Trying to spawn Barbs and Clowns
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I use three males and two females for spawning barbs and give them as much water volume as possible.
(usually use a 2' tank - about 15g - for spawning and move fry to a 40g as soon as they show colour.)
In lower volumes they are more likely to eat eggs IME.

This time I'm just trying to go by exactly what I've been reading on how people trigger it. They didn't spawn last night, but I think I introduced them too late and stressed them a bit. The male is still nipping her backside a lot, it should happen tonight.

I can see why your method would work very well, more eggs should mean more fry, but I'm rather content with a 1.1 right now. If I had a larger tank for them with more cover, I would probably do that.

The female ate a couple black worms, the male was hiding. All the cultures are ready I think, everything should go well tonight._________________Trying to spawn Barbs and Clowns
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No spawn. I don't think the female was gravid enough. She was twice the size of the male and I think her large size played tricks on my eyes. Thinking about it now she is no where near as bloated as she should have been at that size.

I'll keep the fry tank running so that way it develops more and gets filled with bacteria and such. No one else appears to be ready to lay yet so I guess this project has to be put on hold. I can't condition them separately because of lack of tanks so I'll just have to see how nature takes its course._________________Trying to spawn Barbs and Clowns
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I re-did the spawn tank by filling it with about 3 handfuls of Hornwort from a pond nearby. I also filled the tank to about 9 gallon, put on a box-canister filter, and will be doing tons of water changes to eliminate pond crap. Atleast 1 diving beetle hitchhiked on, but hopefully if he eats anything, it will only be dead fry.

I have two cherries at 1.5 and 2 inches nearing spawning conditions.

I have two golds at 1in or under that look full of eggs. I'm not sure if they are big enough to have a successful spawn, but I'm not against trying it because they actually swim INTO the net.

No Odessa is full yet, so I'm not bothering with them.

By the way I also got 3 captive-bred 1in Denisonii Barbs. Pretty sweet I must say. I just have to wait until everyone is just about bursting._________________Trying to spawn Barbs and Clowns
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Well I assume if I wait until they all look like Balloon Mollies they should spawn no problem I'll pick up some brine and frozen bloodworms and try again next week. Blackworms spoil too quick because there are too many of them for my fish. I am however feeding them upwards of 3 times a day, that's supposed to condition them well._________________Trying to spawn Barbs and Clowns
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You need to give a good, balanced, diet and too much live or frozen foods of just a few types can cause fat deposits leading to the balloon molly look that barbs can get. This is not good spawning condition.

Try a frozen discus diet (find one that includes some greens) and alternate with a quality flake or granular food.

I'm alternating between brine 1-2 days, bloodworms probably every other day, all-water sinking pellets every day, and Hikari Cichlid veggie pellets every day. Their diet is pretty well balanced I must say. They can also pick at the Zucchini put down there for the Cories/Snails. And the Carnivore Pellets that the Cories get too.

I didn't mean a literal Balloon Molly, those things are extreme. I had an incredibly pregnant female that died during cycling, I know what they look like. I'll separate a plumper Cherry sometime this weekend and try conditioning her in the breeder tank.

Does anyone know if 1in is mature enough for Gold Barbs to breed? Some females appear to be gravid, but none have their true adult colors yet._________________Trying to spawn Barbs and Clowns
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I can see everyone getting noticeably larger since I started feeding several times a day. They are getting bloodworms every day now as well. The Odessa females are developing bellies, the Golds are growing, and more Cherries are getting fat.

It looks like the largest Cherry's 'vent' or 'cloaca' (I forget which) is visible. I can't see it on any other female regardless of the species. It's just a little red spot by her anal fin. Either she has an STD or she is near ready to lay. I'll give it a few more days._________________Trying to spawn Barbs and Clowns
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